The following information offers a comprehensive look at The Brandywine School District. The district covers 33 square miles, is located in North Wilmington and encompasses a portion of the City of Wilmington and the town of Claymont. The total student enrollment as of September 2008 was 10,113. The student race/ethnicity breakdown is – .2% American Indian; 39.7% African American; 4.1% Asian American; 3.5% Hispanic; 52.5% White. Currently 44% of the students take Advanced Placement courses. The Brandywine School District offers the only International Baccalaureate program in the State at all three levels. There is a self-contained gifted program in grades K-6, expanding to 7-8 in the 2010 school year. The district is the only one in Delaware to have all three high schools make Newsweek’s list of Top High Schools in the Nation. The 2008 drop-out rate was 4.6% -- compared to the state average of 5.8 %. 513 students from outside the District chose to choice into Brandywine in 2008. The district spends $12,915 per pupil. Of this, approximately 76% is spent on direct instructional needs (compared to 70% statewide), 23% on support and operations (compared to 29% statewide), and only 1% on general administration. Additional enrollment characteristics include - 4.6% limited English proficiency; 32.1% come from low income families and 11.9% of the students receive special education services. The district-wide SAT scores – averages: Math – 494; Verbal – 491; Writing – 482
Committee decisions and actions:
In the beginning the group was very unsure of the direction we should take. We were really stuck on the fact that except for the individual technology classes, the use of technology in our school is very minimal and doesn’t seem to be a major priority. We really couldn’t come to a conclusion for the project. After some serious discussions we decided the use of a wikispace as the center for all English teacher classes would be a great idea. The problem was would they agree and do they even use the appropriate technology to make this happen?
In order to figure out what we could do with our wikispace idea we decided to accumulate some information from the English teachers. We developed a small eight question survey in a word document. We thought any teacher who was resistant to technology would ignore a survey from an actual website. This would allow them to answer the questions and e-mail us the answers or print out the sheet and leave it in our mailbox. In the end we sent out ten surveys to English teachers for all four of the high school grades. While we were sticking to one subject area, we didn’t want to only use one grade because we need to understand the feelings of the department for all of our students. Another factor was the division of the teachers within the department. The department has members in their first year mixed with teachers in their twentieth year. Some of the department teaches honors and advanced placement while others work with college preparation level and special education students.
By surveying everyone in the department we could see who understands technology. We could also determine who is integrating the technology in their classes and lessons. More importantly it would allow us to see who is willing to make a change and use the wikispace as the home for their class. Our group received five surveys from the English department. The results allowed us to see whether or not the English department would be open to using a wikispace as their home for all classes. We also learned if anyone had a wikispace and their overall knowledge of wikispaces. Even better was the finding that majority of the group would use professional development to enhance their skills and incorporate the wikispace into their class.
Methodology:
Demographic information:
The following information offers a comprehensive look at The Brandywine School District. The district covers 33 square miles, is located in North Wilmington and encompasses a portion of the City of Wilmington and the town of Claymont. The total student enrollment as of September 2008 was 10,113. The student race/ethnicity breakdown is – .2% American Indian; 39.7% African American; 4.1% Asian American; 3.5% Hispanic; 52.5% White. Currently 44% of the students take Advanced Placement courses. The Brandywine School District offers the only International Baccalaureate program in the State at all three levels. There is a self-contained gifted program in grades K-6, expanding to 7-8 in the 2010 school year. The district is the only one in Delaware to have all three high schools make Newsweek’s list of Top High Schools in the Nation. The 2008 drop-out rate was 4.6% -- compared to the state average of 5.8 %. 513 students from outside the District chose to choice into Brandywine in 2008. The district spends $12,915 per pupil. Of this, approximately 76% is spent on direct instructional needs (compared to 70% statewide), 23% on support and operations (compared to 29% statewide), and only 1% on general administration. Additional enrollment characteristics include - 4.6% limited English proficiency; 32.1% come from low income families and 11.9% of the students receive special education services. The district-wide SAT scores – averages: Math – 494; Verbal – 491; Writing – 482Committee decisions and actions:
In the beginning the group was very unsure of the direction we should take. We were really stuck on the fact that except for the individual technology classes, the use of technology in our school is very minimal and doesn’t seem to be a major priority. We really couldn’t come to a conclusion for the project. After some serious discussions we decided the use of a wikispace as the center for all English teacher classes would be a great idea. The problem was would they agree and do they even use the appropriate technology to make this happen?In order to figure out what we could do with our wikispace idea we decided to accumulate some information from the English teachers. We developed a small eight question survey in a word document. We thought any teacher who was resistant to technology would ignore a survey from an actual website. This would allow them to answer the questions and e-mail us the answers or print out the sheet and leave it in our mailbox. In the end we sent out ten surveys to English teachers for all four of the high school grades. While we were sticking to one subject area, we didn’t want to only use one grade because we need to understand the feelings of the department for all of our students. Another factor was the division of the teachers within the department. The department has members in their first year mixed with teachers in their twentieth year. Some of the department teaches honors and advanced placement while others work with college preparation level and special education students.
By surveying everyone in the department we could see who understands technology. We could also determine who is integrating the technology in their classes and lessons. More importantly it would allow us to see who is willing to make a change and use the wikispace as the home for their class. Our group received five surveys from the English department. The results allowed us to see whether or not the English department would be open to using a wikispace as their home for all classes. We also learned if anyone had a wikispace and their overall knowledge of wikispaces. Even better was the finding that majority of the group would use professional development to enhance their skills and incorporate the wikispace into their class.